Labor

The American worker is falling behind. Real wages for the median American worker have not risen since 1973; economic inequality is worse in American than in 26 out of 30 other developed countries; the bottom 50% of workers receive just 10% of the income; compensation is decided more by who one's parents are than by ability. The decline of the American worker has occurred in lock step with union participation rates which now hover around 10%. Equalization of bargaining power between workers and their corporate employers would improve wages and other benefits. Kentucky's recent abandonment of prevailing wage and adoption of right to work continues a decades long, and largely successful, effort to weaken unions and the middle class. They should be reversed.